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By Evelyn Pringle (about the author)
Become a Fan -- Page 5 of 7 page(s)
"Pharmacia and its successor company, Pfizer, " Mr Labaton says, "generated hundreds of millions in revenue by peddling Genotropin to spurt growth in short children and as an anti-aging drug for adults seeking eternal youth. "
"Genotropin was never intended to make short kids tall and their grandparents young, " he said.
In some whistleblower cases, he says, there is one victim -- "the taxpayer who foots the bill for the fraud. "
It costs law firms a fortune to go up against the giant drug makers. In the Pfizer Neurontin lawsuit, "the civil/whistleblower plaintiffs in that case took more than 20 depositions and obtained thousands of pages of documents in discovery, " Mr Labaton reports.
But he says he 's not complaining. "The costs to us as lawyers and to our firms can be substantial, " he says, "but these costs pale when compared to what whistleblowers, like Dr. Rost, have to endure. "
"So far, " he points out, "Pfizer has used its muscle to reactively and vigorously oppose Dr. Rost and to make his life tough. "
Dr Rost is indeed being hit from all sides.
On December 30, 2005, he was officially nominated for the "Whiny Whistleblower of the Year" award by a Pharma backed front group and won. In truth, whether he knows it or not, it is a top honor, when considering that he competed against two of the nation's most beloved whistleblowers, Dr David Graham of Vioxx fame from the FDA, and Dr Eric Topol, of the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr Rost's award was announced by Gilbert Ross, MD, who bills himself as a doctor and Executive and Medical Director of the American Council on Science and Health.
That in itself is amazing being that Doctor Ross ' own achievement of ripping off Medicaid to the tune of $8 million was only given the recognition that it deserved last fall.
"Ross actually had to abandon medicine on July 24, 1995, when his license to practice as a physician in New York was revoked by the unanimous vote of a state administrative review board for professional misconduct," according to the November/December issue of Mother Jones Magazine.
"Instead of tending to patients," Jones reports, "Ross spent all of 1996 at a federal prison camp in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, having being sentenced to 46 months in prison for his participation in a scheme that ultimately defrauded New York's Medicaid program of approximately $8 million. "
For its part, the American Council on Science and Health stopped disclosing its corporate donors in the early 1990s, according to Integrity in Science on its web site at http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/nonprofits/american_council_on_science_and_health.html
However, the companies noted as contributors in ACSH 's 1991 annual report and ACSH 's list of Corporate Donors for 1997 include: Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, American Cyanamid, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ciba-Geigy, Eli Lilly, Hoffman-La Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Rhone-Poulenc, Sandoz, Searle, Syntex, Warner-Lambert, Upjohn, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.
For too many years, off-label marketing offenses resulted in nothing more than a slap on the wrist to drug makers, if that.
The FDA regulated the industry and when it found "off-label" marketing, the agency sent the company a warning letter. Sometimes companies were required to sign a consent degree, but they did not face fines.
Become a Fan -- Page 5 of 7 page(s)
"Genotropin was never intended to make short kids tall and their grandparents young, " he said.
In some whistleblower cases, he says, there is one victim -- "the taxpayer who foots the bill for the fraud. "
It costs law firms a fortune to go up against the giant drug makers. In the Pfizer Neurontin lawsuit, "the civil/whistleblower plaintiffs in that case took more than 20 depositions and obtained thousands of pages of documents in discovery, " Mr Labaton reports.
But he says he 's not complaining. "The costs to us as lawyers and to our firms can be substantial, " he says, "but these costs pale when compared to what whistleblowers, like Dr. Rost, have to endure. "
"So far, " he points out, "Pfizer has used its muscle to reactively and vigorously oppose Dr. Rost and to make his life tough. "
Dr Rost is indeed being hit from all sides.
On December 30, 2005, he was officially nominated for the "Whiny Whistleblower of the Year" award by a Pharma backed front group and won. In truth, whether he knows it or not, it is a top honor, when considering that he competed against two of the nation's most beloved whistleblowers, Dr David Graham of Vioxx fame from the FDA, and Dr Eric Topol, of the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr Rost's award was announced by Gilbert Ross, MD, who bills himself as a doctor and Executive and Medical Director of the American Council on Science and Health.
That in itself is amazing being that Doctor Ross ' own achievement of ripping off Medicaid to the tune of $8 million was only given the recognition that it deserved last fall.
"Ross actually had to abandon medicine on July 24, 1995, when his license to practice as a physician in New York was revoked by the unanimous vote of a state administrative review board for professional misconduct," according to the November/December issue of Mother Jones Magazine.
"Instead of tending to patients," Jones reports, "Ross spent all of 1996 at a federal prison camp in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, having being sentenced to 46 months in prison for his participation in a scheme that ultimately defrauded New York's Medicaid program of approximately $8 million. "
For its part, the American Council on Science and Health stopped disclosing its corporate donors in the early 1990s, according to Integrity in Science on its web site at http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/nonprofits/american_council_on_science_and_health.html
However, the companies noted as contributors in ACSH 's 1991 annual report and ACSH 's list of Corporate Donors for 1997 include: Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, American Cyanamid, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ciba-Geigy, Eli Lilly, Hoffman-La Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Rhone-Poulenc, Sandoz, Searle, Syntex, Warner-Lambert, Upjohn, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.
For too many years, off-label marketing offenses resulted in nothing more than a slap on the wrist to drug makers, if that.
The FDA regulated the industry and when it found "off-label" marketing, the agency sent the company a warning letter. Sometimes companies were required to sign a consent degree, but they did not face fines.
Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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Parallel Market for Prescription Drugs?
by Edward Lewis on Thursday, Jan 4, 2007 at 6:51:51 PM